neat playuna bonita jugada;a clever piece of playuna hábil jugada;play began at three o'clockel partido empezó a las tres;to be in play[+ball]estar en juego;to be out of play[+ball]estar fuera de juego

there's not enough play in the ropela cuerda no da lo suficiente;there's too much play in the clutchel embrague tiene demasiada holgura or va demasiado suelto

5(interaction)

the play of light on the waterel rielar de la luz sobre el agua;the play of light and dark in this pictureel efecto de luz y sombra en este cuadro;the free play of market forcesla libre interacción de los mercados;the play of ideas in the film is fascinatingel abanico de ideas en la película es fascinante

do you play football?¿juegas al fútbol?;what position does he play?¿de qué juega?;to play centre-forward/centre-half etcjugar de delantero centro/medio centro etc;they played him in goallo pusieron en la portería

to play a game of tennisjugar un partido de tenis

to play a game of cards (with sb)echar una partida de cartas (con algn);the children were playing a game in the gardenlos niños estaban jugando (a un juego) en el jardín;don't play games with me!¡no me vengas con jueguecitos!;¡no trates de engañarme!

Don't play games with me! Just give me a straight answer.

to play the field(have many girlfriends, boyfriends)darse al ligue (informal)

He gave up playing the field and married a year ago

to play the game(get involved)tomar parte;mojarse (informal);(play fair)acatar las normas

If you want to meet women, you have to approach them — you can't just sit back, you have to play the gameHe'd begun to like this guy. Ramon, as far as Grady could tell, was playing the game. He was doing the right thing without being prodded or pushed

2[+team, opponent]jugar contra

I played him twicejugué contra él dos veces;last time we played Sunderland ...la última vez que jugamos contra Sunderland ...

to play sb at chessjugar contra algn al ajedrez

I'll play you for the drinksquien pierde paga

3[+card]jugar;[+ball]golpear

A player can only be penalized if he has made no attempt to play the ball

[+chess piece etc]mover;[+fish]dejar que se canse;agotar

he played the ball into the net(Tennis)estrelló or golpeó la pelota contra la red

to play the market(St Ex)jugar a la bolsa

to play one's cards right or welljugar bien sus cartas

Soon, if she played her cards right, she would be head of the London office

he played his acesacó el as que llevaba escondido en la manga

And then she played her ace — she told him he couldn't have been at home that night because she phoned him and there was no answer

to play ball (with sb)(cooperate)colaborar (con algn)

The question is, will he play ball with us or will he choose to go it alone?If he won't play ball we'll just have to get tough with him

4(perform)[+role, part]hacer;interpretar

In his new movie he again plays the part of a villain

[+work]representar;(perform in)[+town]actuar en

what part did you play?¿qué papel tuviste?;when we played "Hamlet"cuando representamos "Hamlet";when I played Hamletcuando hice el papel de Hamlet;we shall be playing the West Endpondremos la obra en el West End;when we last played Blackpoolcuando actuamos la última vez en Blackpool;let's play it for laughshagámoslo de manera burlesca

to play one's part wellHe played his part well — no one suspected he wasn't her husbandhe was only playing a partIt was clear that he didn't really believe what he was telling her — he was only playing a partto play a part (in)Relatives and friends can play a part in letting the person believe that he or she is worth helpingHe was executed for playing a part in the plot to kill HitlerUnfortunately, Hartson played no part in their success — he was injured at the timeStress seems to play a part in some cases of unexplained infertilityBut many other factors also seem to play a part

to play the peacemaker/the devoted husbandhacer el papel de pacificador/de marido amantísimo

Whenever the boys started arguing, it was always their father who played the peacemaker

we could have played it differentlypodríamos haber actuado de otra forma

We could have played it differently — we could have used bribery instead of threats

to play it coolmantener el tipo;actuar como si nada

Needless to say, I was mortified by the development, but felt that publicly I must play it cool

to play the piano/violintocar el piano/el violín;they played the 5th Symphonytocaron or(formal) interpretaron la Quinta Sinfonía;they were playing Beethoventocaban or(formal) interpretaban algo de Beethoven;I can't play a noteno tengo ni idea de música

None of us could play a note but we all fought to carry the guitar as we walked down the streetto play a joke trick on sbto play a dirty trick on sb

6(direct)[+light, hose]dirigir

to play hoses on a firedirigir mangueras sobre un incendio;to play a searchlight on an aircraftdirigir un reflector hacia un avión;hacer de un avión el blanco de un reflector

to play sb false

intransitive verb

1(amuse o.s.)[+child]jugar;[+puppy, kitten etc]jugar;juguetear

to go out to playsalir a jugar;to play with a stickjuguetear con un palo;to play with an ideadar vueltas a una idea;barajar una idea;to play with one's foodcomiscar;to play with firejugar con fuego;he's got money to play withtiene dinero de sobra;how much time/money do we have to play with?¿con cuánto tiempo/dinero contamos?;¿de cuánto tiempo/dinero disponemos?;he's just playing with youse está burlando de ti;to play with o.s.tocarse;masturbarse

2(Dep)(at game, gamble)jugar

play!¡listo!;who plays first?¿quién juega primero?;are you playing today?¿tu juegas hoy?;I've not played for a long timehace mucho tiempo que no juego

England are playing against Scotland in the finalInglaterra jugará contra or se enfrentará a Escocia en la final

to play at chessjugar al ajedrez

they're playing at soldiersestán jugando a (los) soldados;he's just playing at itlo hace para pasar el tiempo nada más;the little girl plays at being a womanla niña juega a ser mujer;what are you playing at?pero ¿qué haces?;¿qué te pasa?

to play by the rulesacatar las normas

Politicians, of all people, must play by the rulesShe played by the rules. She worked hard, saved money, put herself through school, became a teacher, got married, and looked forward to living the American dream

to play fairjugar limpio

he plays for Liverpooljuega en el Liverpool

to play for moneyjugar por dinero;to play for high stakesapostar muy alto;poner mucho en juego

The minster knew he was playing for high stakes. If the plan didn't succeed, he would have no choice but to resign

to play in defence/goal(Dep)jugar de defensa/de portero

he played into the trees(Golf)mandó la bola a la zona de árboles

to play for timetratar de ganar tiempo

to play into sb's handshacer el juego a algn

to play to one's strengthssacar partido a sus cualidades

We played to our strengths. We pressurized everyone and made them runThere are many ways to succeed in this business, but you must learn what you are good at in order to play to those strengths

3(Mús)[+person]tocar;[+instrument, record etc]sonar

do you play?¿sabes tocar?;a record was playing in the backgroundde fondo sonaba un disco;when the organ playscuando suena el órgano

will you play for us?¿nos tocas algo?

to play on the pianotocar el piano

to play to sbtocar para algn

4(Teat)(Cine)(act)actuar

to play in a filmtrabajar en una película;we have played all over the Southhemos representado en todas partes del Sur;the film now playing at the Odeonla película que se exhibe or proyecta en el Odeon

to play hard to gethacerse de rogar;[+woman]hacerse la difícil

to play deadhacerse el muerto

Sometimes when we chase them, they are so scared that they roll themselves into a ball and play dead

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